List of first minority male lawyers and judges in Alabama
This is a list of the first minority male lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Alabama. It includes the year in which the men were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are other distinctions such as the first minority men in their state to graduate from law school or become a political figure.
Firsts in Alabama's history
[edit]Lawyers
[edit]- First African American male: Moses W. Moore (1871)[1][2][3]
- First African American male from Alabama to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court: Samuel R. Lowery (1875) in 1880
- One of Alabama's first Korean American lawyers (2008): Soo Seok Yang[4]
State judges
[edit]- First African American male: Roderick B. Thomas in 1874[5][6]
- First African American male (circuit judge): Cain James Kennedy (1971) in 1979[7]
- First African American male (probate court): William McKinley Branch in 1970[8][9][10]
- First African American male (Alabama Supreme Court): Oscar W. Adams Jr. (1947) in 1980[11][12]
- First African American male (Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Alabama): Eddie Hardaway, Jr. (1978) in 1995[13]
- First African American male (Alabama Court of Civil Appeals): Bill Lewis in 2024[14]
Federal judges
[edit]- First African American male (U.S. federal judge): U. W. Clemon (1968) in 1980[15][16][17][18][19]
- First African American male (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama): Terry F. Moorer in 2018[20]
Assistant Attorney General
[edit]United States Attorney
[edit]- First African American male: Kenyen R. Brown in 2009[23]
Assistant United States Attorney
[edit]- First African American male (Northern District of Alabama): J. Richmond Pearson in 1967[24]
District Attorney
[edit]- First African American male: Barrown Lankster in 1992[25][26][27][28]
- First African American male (President of the Alabama District Attorney's Association): Michael W. Jackson in 2021[29]
Alabama State Bar Association
[edit]- First African American male (President): Fred Gray Sr. in 2002[30]
Firsts in local history
[edit]- Michael W. Jackson:[31] First African American male to serve as the District Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit in Alabama (2004)[32] [Bibb, Dallas, Hale, Perry and Wilcox Counties, Alabama]
- Eddie Hardaway, Jr. (1978):[13] First African American male to serve on the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Alabama (1995)
- Rufus C. Huffman, Sr.:[33] First African American male probate judge in Bullock County, Alabama (1976)
- J.L. Chestnut (1958):[34][35] First African American male lawyer in Selma, Dallas County, Alabama
- Orzell Billingsley and Peter Hall:[12] First African American male lawyers to try a case in Dallas County, Alabama
- Jimmy Nunn:[36][37] First African American male probate judge in Dallas County, Alabama (2018)
- William McKinley Branch:[8][9][10] First African American male elected as a probate judge in Greene County, Alabama (1970)
- Arthur Crawford:[38] First African American male to serve as a probate judge in Hale County, Alabama
- Theo Lawson II:[39][40] First African American male to serve as the County Attorney of Jefferson County, Alabama (2016)
- Danny Carr:[41] First African American male to serve as the District Attorney (Birmingham division) of Jefferson County, Alabama (2018)
- Oscar W. Adams Jr. (1947):[11][12] First African-American male admitted to the Birmingham Bar Association [Jefferson and Shelby Counties, Alabama]
- J. Mason Davis:[12] First African American male to serve as the President of the Birmingham Bar Association (1983) [Jefferson and Shelby Counties, Alabama]
- John Hulett:[42] First African American male to serve as a probate judge in Lowndes County, Alabama
- Alfonza Menefee:[43] First African American male probate judge in Macon County, Alabama (1988)
- Charles Swinger Conley:[44][45] First African American male judge of the Court of Common Pleas (1972)
- Thomas H. Figures:[46] First African American male to serve as the Assistant District Attorney for Mobile County, Alabama
- Steven Reed:[47] First African American male to serve as a probate judge in Montgomery County, Alabama (2012)
- Michael Figures, Booker Forte, Jr., and Ronald E. Jackson:[48] First African American males to graduate from the University of Alabama School of Law (1972)
- Eric Hamilton:[49] First African American male to serve as an Assistant District Attorney for Walker County, Alabama (2013)
See also
[edit]Other topics of interest
[edit]- List of first women lawyers and judges in the United States
- List of first women lawyers and judges in Alabama
References
[edit]- ^ "Moses Wenslydale Moore". ala-lawyers.org. Retrieved March 8, 2020.
- ^ "FROM THE ALABAMA LAWYER – Blazing the Trail: Alabama's First Black Lawyers". Alabama State Bar. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
- ^ Upon Moore being admitted to practice law before the Alabama Supreme Court in 1871
- ^ Harper, Brad. "Lawyer Soo Seok Yang wins Chad Stewart community service award". Montgomery Advertiser. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
- ^ "Judge Roderick B. Thomas". Alabama Lawyers Association. Retrieved January 10, 2018.
- ^ Fitts, Alston (2016). Selma: A Bicentennial History. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 9780817319328.
- ^ Smith, Jessie Carney (2013). Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. Visible Ink Press. ISBN 9781578594252.
- ^ a b Morton, Jason. "Civil rights figure, first black probate judge William McKinley Branch dies in Alabama at 95". Tuscaloosa News. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ a b Gains at the Polls: Government and Politics. Johnson Publishing Company. January 1971.
- ^ a b "Branch, William McKinley, 1918-". crdl.usg.edu. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ a b J. Mark White & Kitty Rogers Brown, Oscar William Adams Jr., Encyclopedia of Alabama (December 6, 2017).
- ^ a b c d Johnson, Jr., Raymond L. (May 1993). "Black Pioneer Lawyers in Alabama—Living Legends". Alabama Lawyer.
- ^ a b Watkins, Ed (January 12, 1995). "Circuit judge sworn in". news.google.com. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ Britt, Bill (May 3, 2024). "Judge Bill Lewis makes history as first African-American on Civil Appeals Court". Alabama Political Reporter. Retrieved April 14, 2025.
- ^ "African American History Month - 2017". gaprobate.gov. January 30, 2017. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ Law and Justice: Poetic Justice. Johnson Publishing Company. January 24, 1980.
- ^ Daniels, Maurice C. (2001). Horace T. Ward: Desegregation of the University of Georgia, Civil Rights Advocacy, and Jurisprudence. Clark Atlanta University Press. ISBN 9780966855531.
- ^ Kent Faulk (July 5, 2013). "Alabama's first black federal judge, U.W. Clemon, being honored by group that had opposed his nomination". AL.com.
- ^ "On this day in Alabama history: U.W. Clemon appointed to U.S. District Court". Alabama NewsCenter. January 10, 2019. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ "Shelby praises confirmation of first ever African American judge to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama". Yellowhammer News. August 29, 2018. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
- ^ Lewis; Portl, Clark 0615 S. W. Palatine Hill Road; USA 503-768-7000, Oregon 97219. "Alabama's First Black Judge Speaks in Portland Synagogue for MLK Celebration". www.lclark.edu. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1980.
- ^ Patterson, Nick (April 5, 2018). "In Mobile, New U.S. Attorney Emphasizes Listening Locally, Keeping What Works, Respect". BirminghamWatch. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ "ALABAMA LAWYERS ASSOCIATION CELEBRATES THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF THE HONORABLE J. RICHMOND PEARSON". ala-lawyers.org. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
- ^ "Jackson not first black DA". The Selma Times‑Journal. January 21, 2005. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ Writer, Gilbert Cruz Staff. "District Attorney Greg Griggers fends off challenge". Tuscaloosa News. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ McGuire, Danielle L.; Dittmer, John (November 1, 2011). Freedom Rights: New Perspectives on the Civil Rights Movement. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-3448-2.
- ^ Lankster was elected to serve as a District Attorney in the Alabama Black Belt in 1992, which consists of 18 counties.
- ^ "Veteran prosecutor elected first Black president of Alabama District Attorneys Association". al. July 7, 2021. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
- ^ "First black president of Alabama State Bar". African American Registry. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
- ^ "2018 Michael W. Jackson '85". alumni.centre.edu. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ Jackson was the second African American male elected as a District Attorney in Alabama's history.
- ^ "Timeline of the life of Rufus C. Huffman, Sr". Union Springs Herald. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ "Remembering Attorney, Civil Rights Champion, and Original EJI Board Member J.L. Chestnut Jr". Equal Justice Initiative. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
- ^ "As the first black lawyer in Selma, Ala., J.L. Chestnut..." tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Archived from the original on September 23, 2017. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
- ^ "Dallas Co. Probate Judge Set to Pass Torch and Retire". Alabama News. December 7, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ "From humble past to public servant, Nunn ready for new office". The Montgomery Advertiser. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ "Hale Freezes Over". WBHM 90.3. January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
- ^ "Theo Lawson appointed Jefferson County Attorney". al. November 14, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
- ^ Times, Birmingham (July 12, 2018). "Meet Candidates in Tuesday's 2018 Jefferson County Commission Runoff Elections". The Birmingham Times. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
- ^ "A son of Ensley fueled by family tragedy aims to 'do what's right' as Jefferson County DA". al. January 22, 2017. Retrieved March 10, 2020.
- ^ "Only on 12: Lowndes County Buries Civil Rights Hero". WSFA. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ THOMPSON, JEFF. "Menefee assumes role as first black male AAPJ president". The Tuskegee News. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
- ^ Patton, Gwendolyn M. "Charles Conley Collection, Trenholm State Community College". www.trenholmstate.edu. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
- ^ "Hearing Is Slated Today For Weeks". The Cullman Times, June 19, 1973. Retrieved September 23, 2017.
- ^ Strunk, Taylor Peyton (March 22, 2015). "A drum major for justice, Thomas Henry Figures". al. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
- ^ Fausset, Richard; Pérez-Peña, Richard; Wolfe, Kalyn (February 10, 2015). "Federal Judge Sets Hearing in Alabama on Same-Sex Marriage". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 16, 2020.
- ^ "Law School Commemorates 45th Anniversary of the First African-American Law Graduates". UA School of Law. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- ^ "Birmingham defense attorney becomes first African American assistant district attorney in Walker County history". al. October 11, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2020.